presents for elderly relatives. HELP!

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Have any of you got any ideas for grannies? Mine are both over 90 years old, have everything they need and eat very little. I have no idea what to get them...have done the hamper thing in the past so don't want to do that again but what do you get yours? I am so stuck!

Experiences, not items. We are buying 80 year old MiL a trip away. Offer to take them out for tea / to a country house / to the seaside. Or, what about rescuing some old photos as enlarging them or scanning and making a photo book.

New nightie or dressing gown.

Boxed set of dvds.

Bottle of their favourite tipple.

Audio books.

Old fashioned smellies - John Lewis sell things like bronnley talc which goes down with mine.

Cherry brandy.

Electric blanket?

Struggling for my dad he's in his 80's.

I've bought a photo book of where DM grew up as she talks a lot about her childhood now and I am hoping it will bring back some more memories.

Difficult.

Tend to agree that 'time and effort' are a lot more important than more stuff - a lovely afternoon tea out/visit to a National Trust place etc.

Never forget when my DGM died and we cleared out her stuff - boxes and boxes of lovingly chosen presents - nice scarves/gloves/Yardley toiletries/nightdresses/cardigans/posh biscuits etc etc all stored away and never used .

I bought both grannys cardigans due to small funds I got them from BHS.

Both of mine are housebound so depends how active they are

3bunnies, that's a great idea - will try to remember for my DM's next present.

I have done boxed sets, hamper of Body Shop stuff, digital photoframe, scarves, etc and I know she has used them. Hamper this year!

I agree though, an experience is a great idea. Bit more tricky to sort when my DM is 200 miles away, but I will keep it in mind!

Unfortunately my df isn't very mobile and dm hates going beyond a five mile radius so can't really do exeperiences. They tend to buy stuff that they want. I think that for next year I might try to scan some of their old photos.

I think it depends what they are able to do still. We had grandparents until they were in their early 90s. The DF's liked whiskey/sherry and the GMs nice sweets/turkish delight, a nice mug with picture of g/grandchildren on etc. Apart from that thinks to make life easier. One year DH's aunties and uncles clubbed together to buy an orthopaedic armchair so she could get up easily and it had an electric footrest that went up and down.

But for little presents we stuck to smellies, slippers, etc. Sadly DH only threw away the last pair of slippers we bought for his grandad and which were unworn when he died.

Do they like to read? My Grandma was in her 90s and was only able to read large print books. She was telling me how sometimes she read a word or heard a word on TV that she didn't know and she couldn't look it up because the print was too small in her dictionary. I searched everywhere for a large print dictionary and encyclopaedia and finally found one, and she was absolutely thrilled!

She was the hardest person to buy for too, she didn't like sweets or chocolate, had plenty of clothes, and wouldn't open a 'nice' gift set of smellies. We used to buy single bottles of talc and bubble bath, otherwise she wouldn't use them!

Thinking back too, she used to love Chinese food, so if she was alive today, I would give her a home made voucher for a trip to a Chinese restaurant and take her there after Christmas.

I'm getting FIL some buddelia bushes which I know he wants. He's 85 but very active and still does his own gardening. For his birthday I got him a bumble bee box as he's very into keeping the bee population going.

Thank you so much for the ideas...lots I hadn't thought of! They are both pretty much housebound one with alzheimers and one dementia unfortunately. I will be looking into these..thanks once again!

Audio books are also good - maybe see what their favourites are, or if you live near them say that you will get a different one from the library each month. Our library also do audio downloads but if they are like my parents they are probably allergic to technology!